Elected local government officials would no longer be allowed to sign agreements to keep what they’re doing secret when carrying out their official duties under a bill sponsored by state Sen. Mike Jones, D-Richmond. The bill says such nondisclosure agreements are against public policy and that nondisclosure agreements reached after July 1, 2027, would be void and unenforceable. … The ban would not apply to matters that laws require to be kept confidential, such as an individual’s health conditions, or to active criminal or civil investigations. Also exempted are matters that could affect an official’s privacy rights. “I’m not surprised by this kind of legislation because I’m forever hearing from people all around the state who haven’t been able to get answers to questions about potentially huge projects coming to their communities. It’s mostly data centers now, but it’s not just data centers,” said Megan Rhyne, executive director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government. “People are frustrated when the very people they elect say they can’t talk to them and are bound to secrecy until a final deal is announced, fully decided, leaving no chance for input or even understanding,” she said.

The White House last month launched America.gov, an AI-powered portal meant to be a single starting point for citizens to find federal information and services. An accompanying executive order directs agencies to integrate public-facing services with more than 100,000 annual users, excluding IRS tax filing and services provided by the Department of Defense and elements of the intelligence community. This includes making the public APIs, dashboards, and digital forms that already support covered services accessible through America.gov. Most coverage has focused on the portal itself. The larger story for agencies is what happens after a citizen types in a query and hits enter. A conversational interface can route a question in seconds, but it cannot adjudicate a claim, search millions of records for a FOIA response, or close an investigation. That work still happens inside agency systems. And the new front door is about to send those systems more work.